Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 9 Studs & Duds, Rising Stars, Over-succeeding

a better dolphins. You know, once you send a message as a coach, that helps. That being said, again, Oakland Raiders defense. What was the message that I'll trade you away? Yeah. I mean, that's literally the message. The message is you buy in. Or you're not playing. Yeah, or we'll ship you out. And doing it to a pro bowl player like JJ. I think that it does send a pretty strong message.

Get out the way, Calvin Benjamin. Get out of the way, JJ. Yeah, that's what he's saying. We didn't talk about Christian McCaffrey. I'll circle back to that and then we'll get into our rising stars. But Christian McCaffrey, he actually ran the ball. Got a rushing touchdown first of his career. Over four carry. Let's get to the rising stars. Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Whig. All right, who wants to kick it off? Love Michael Cee. Do it.

I'm going to go. All right. Second. Okay, then I'll take it from here because we've talked about him enough already. Damien Williams is my rising star. Look, I love Kenyon Drake. Kenyon Drake is a guy that I think is a talented running back. He was the better RB. He was the much better running back. You saw him on that 40-yard rush. It was great. But the thing is, with Kenyon Drake, everybody bought Kenyon Drake.

And they spent up for him. He was the number one waiver-wire pick this last week. And you weren't too dis... I mean, you were happy with it. But Damian Williams was the starter?

He came in and he got the opening drive. And he was much more involved in the passing game and in passing downs before the game got to the situation where you were down to scores. It was King and Drake's turn. They were kind of rotating series. And then King and Drake was involved in the passing game because every play was a pass. But I actually believe from just watching the film that...

that Damien Williams is the passing downs back, and that passing work will make him a little bit safer because I don't think the dolphins are good. I think the dolphins are, you know, at best, the middle of the pack team. And so my point is not even that Damian Williams is going to definitely be better than Kenyon Drake, but he's rising to me because I think Damien Williams stinks.

And genuinely, I mean, watch the elephant in the room I was waiting for. No, I mean. I was going to ask you, you got to address your, you know, season long. Nothing has changed. Not season long. Yeah, this is life. Multiple years. Yeah. Damien Williams is not a good running back. He stinks. I mean, that's just.

That's just sorry, that's life. He got seven carries. He got 14 yards out of those seven carries. It's the passing work that is making me as a fantasy owner say, oh, he's rising to me. I think this is going to be a guy you can plug in and play and rely on. And that is, I mean, when I say that about Damien Williams, he's a rocket. If I think you can somewhat rely on him, then he is shooting up like, you know, crazy. Does that make sense?

Sure. You always make sense, Jay. Mike, you said your second. I'm going with King Goughrey. 311, 4 touched. Oh, 311. Didn't even make that band reference right there. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. I apologize. I didn't make the connection until I still had to sing the song. It gets Houston, Minnesota. You don't love it so much, but we're seeing quarterbacks who are playing well.

dominating in even these tough matchups and gets the Saints, Arizona, Philadelphia. If you picked him up to stream him, I think you have a long-term solution here at the quarterback position. Rams are the highest scoring offense in the league. It's been an incredible turnaround for that team, and I'm just, I'm bought in. I'm bought into King Goughrey. We lovingly call him that because he is our nemesis, but he's good for your fancy team right now.

I'm throwing Cole Beasley's name out there, and I think he's going to be, people are going to pay attention to him because of the two touchdowns, and that's not why I'm throwing him out there. I'm throwing him out there because Des Bryant rolled up that ankle, and Terrence Williams rolled up that ankle. And if Williams is fine, you can probably slide Terrence Williams' name in place of Beasley for the rising start of the week. Williams set one of his best games of his career.

141 yards receiving in this game. But if both of those players are hurt, then Cole Beasley is just a necessity to that offense. And he is used around the goal line when, you know, when Des is off the field. And so I think Cole Beasley is somebody that you might be able to play in place of a suspended AJ Green or a biweek Michael Crabtree, whatever situation you're facing. Raising Kings, Rising Stars of the Week.

Yeah. I think it's almost impossible to tell you how scared that. Oh, no. If you're watching YouTube, you can see Mike just rock it six feet back. I almost pooped myself. I mean. I'm sure some of the listeners did. Every single one of the hairs of my body are standing in attention. If you are listening and you pooped yourself, we are going to need an email.

I don't need to exercise today. My heart rate is way up. I am so sorry that Brooks did that. What's funny, or funny, whatever, interesting is Cole Beasley, right? Six targets, four receptions, 24 yards and two touchdowns.

We've seen this game before. It's called six targets for four receptions, 23 yards and two touchdowns. Earlier in the year? Yeah, against Green Bay. It's like the identical stat line except for one yard. Okay. If that last sound drop doesn't make you aware, those were the Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. Remember that game day tastes better with Raising Cain's tailgates full of fresh 24 hour.

marinated, hand-battered chicken fingers and fresh-brewed sweet tea. Visit raising canes.com to find your nearest location. I'm going to push the button. Three, two, one. Poopped in his big boy pants. It doesn't matter if we've done 450, 60 shows. There's still room for improvement. My soul left my body. Oh, my gosh. I'm sure there's a freeze frame in there where you can see it. I can't wait to see the YouTube. All right. Hey.

Let's poop our pants, Andy Dalton, Kirk Cousins against Denver. I'm sorry, against Kirk Cousins was up against Seattle. To be fair, we expected both of these. But Kurt Cousins came up clutch with Josh Doxon, won the game. Yeah, that was big time. Hard to do that up in Seattle. Come back and win a game. Andy Dalton, hey there. 10 for 18, 136 yards.

AJ Green leaving didn't help. AJ Green being there didn't help. And Andy Dalton is now a, you play him against his Cleveland matchup probably. He's a Cleveland only. Three weeks. You make the Christmas, the chain link calendar where you tear them off every single week. And you're counting down until Cleveland. So make three rings, ladies and gentlemen, and then you get to play Andy Dalton. Yeah, I mean, he's at home right around Thanksgiving.

And that's his, he's going to gobble up points that one game. Certainly is. If he's, if he's the starter. Oh, he'll be the starting. All right. Running backs, you were hurting if you started LaShawn McCoy. If you were starting Doug Martin, Kareem Hunt, Devante Freeman. This is the first time this has happened, 1146, but he didn't get in the end zone.

And it hurt your fantasy team. Chris Thompson barely saw the field, really. Four for 20, four for 11 in the passing game. It just didn't come to fruition. And DeMarco Murray, I want to talk about him because he's one of my favorite second half guys. But if you look at this game, he was banged up again. He left the field, went back into the medical tent. There was a period of time when he probably would have been on the field where Derek Henry got on the field around the goal line. All that being said, despite being off the field for a period of the game, he still outperformed Derek Henry.

Again, in total yardage. And so this backfield, their lack of dependency on the run this year compared to last year, it is a little bit concerning. The next two weeks are not good. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, then you got Indianapolis and Houston. I still really like DeMarco Murray towards the end of this year going up against the 49ers in your first playoff matchup, but it does give you some pause because he cannot stay healthy right now. So what do you do? Do you start him next week or do you...

Because, you know, he had the injury. Maybe he's on the field more. What do you think is the situation that these fantasy owners should, you know, what should he be doing? Yeah. What should they be doing? I mean, I think the next two weeks with tough matchups against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, that he's going to be one of those. He's not an RB1 and he's not an RB2. He's a flex consideration play as you watch his health.

his practice reports because, you know, you say, okay, he was banged up this last game, he missed a chunk of the game. Maybe he'll play the whole game and be better this next time, but the narrative can also be he's banged up and he keeps getting banged up and he's not getting healthy and he could miss parts of the next game or, you know, just get fewer carries in order to protect his health.

Right now, this is the division leading Tennessee Titans, and so they are thinking playoffs. They are thinking a little bit longer term. Right now, the next two weeks, I'm not wanting to play to Marco Murray until he looks healthy. I agree with you, Andy, by the season's end, he should be good. He's the clear-cut starter lead back. He's not in a 50-50 timeshare here, but his health has not been there. And he's...

you know, getting up there in total career volume and usage and age. So to think that, oh, well, by the seasons, and he will be healthy, might be a mistake. All right. C.G. Anderson, Jamal, Charles, and Devante Booker, none of them offered you fantasy value in that backfield. Let's put, you know, moving forward, would you still rather roster Anderson of all those three? I would. Of the three of them, yeah.

Alex Collins, kind of laid an egg, 13 for 43, has the buy week coming up. Is he dropable if you need another piece? If you need another piece because of the buy week and I think the timing will allow for Woodhead to come back, I would be willing to, but I'm not, like personally, I have some shares of Collins. I'm not going to drop him. I'm just saying if there's a biweek need and he's on by, then you do what you have to do. Have you guys seen anything about Doug Martin?

Yeah, he left the field, I think, with eight minutes left or something like that in the third quarter and never played again. Yeah, but I'm saying, like, was, he got benched. It wasn't a, it wasn't an injury. All right, well, just checking for injury and just. I mean, that's a major concern. If just the benching was, was performance related or if there was something else going on that we don't know about, but I mean, eight for, eight for seven. It's tough in the streets. You're entertained by that line there. That, because that's impossible.

That just seems impossible for Doug Martin to run 8 for 7. I can see Trent Richardson in the corner winking when you said that's impossible. Hold my beer. You were there. Jonathan Stewart had a game 11 for 21 with two fumbles. Thanks Jonathan. Yeah. Legerrett Blunt, 9 for 37. What do you do with Blunt? He will be replaced by JJ. Yeah. So what do you do? Blunt or Clement rest of season.

Oh, that's an excellent question. Because maybe they play Clement on third down. I think I read Clement. Yeah. Mike Evans, one catch. A.J. Green, one catch. Emmanuel Sanders one catch. Dante Moncrief. Wait, did Emmanuel Sanders? Didn't even be in here. Did Emmanuel Sanders throw any punches? That was the trend. No. No, I don't think so. But one catch, one black eye. Will Fuller returned to Earth because Sam Savage joined the team. He had two receptions on eight targets.

Yeah, 25% is about what you can expect on your targets from now on. My goodness. So moving forward, you know, you're not really worried about AJ Green or Mike Evans as long as they're on the field. What about Emmanuel Sanders with that quarterback situation? I mean, Brock Osweiler, he's not good. They said Paxson Lynch might start next week. Yeah, I worry. I mean, you know, look, I've kind of supported C.J. Anderson, but the reason I've said that is because he is still the starter.